Charles Hickock and Paul Bolduc consider
their telegate options for delivering a load of space dust.

The Return of the Machines

This year's tournament started on Wednesday with a crowd 41
cutthroat traders at Stitches Comedy Club (otherwise known as
the Wheatland Room). The GM elected to sit out this game so there
would be ten 4-player tables. Still the sharks were out in full
force: , (No I was NOT avoiding them! Really!) Perennial semi-finalists
Chuck Foster, Bill Crenshaw, Eric Wrobel, Steve Dickson, Debbie
Gutermuth & Luke Koleszar qualified their way to the next
round. Bernard Beckerman, Doug Faust, Roy Pettis, and vision-impaired
Allen Stancius (who used his amazing psionic powers. Can anyone
else play Merchant of Venus without seeing the galaxy?)

The best game was clearly Game #3: Ewan McNay actually had
the highest score - needing only to deliver $40 of goods to win.
He was paid off on a port, putting him over the winning amount
needed, but you must declare victory on your own turn. In the
interim Chuck Foster snuck in for the win. Tom Stokes was third
in that game while amassing $1981, good enough for only third
Alternate (Debbie Anderson finished with $1984 in Game #7) Wow,
what a game!

Given this round was held in a comedy club, the funniest thing
that happened (far funnier than many of the comedians that regularly
appear there) was an unfortunate Philip "Mr. Freighter"
Shea deciding to explore the Asteroid system using extra pips
from having rolled 6-6-6. Of course, he was sent off course by
finding a telegate which forcibly (the perils of Triple 6's)
sent him to the Cloud. OUCH! For this Philip has won the fictional,
annual "Wrong Way Corrigian" Award.

The second heat on Thursday evening , also in Stitches, drew
32 players, playing eight 4-player games. Philip "Mr. Freighter"
Shea recovered from his misadventures in the first heat, to win
his way into the semi-finals, using (what else!) a freighter
and finding a Relic Yellow Drive and the Jump Start (which certainly
helped.) Other winners were Richard Irving (yours truly), Eyal
Mozes, Tom Stokes (who eliminated the need for a third Alternate
spot), Rich Meyer, Ken Gutermuth, Luke Koleszar (the first repeat
winner), and Robert Woodson.

The third heat on Friday afternoon was relocated to the Limerock
Room which has exactly eight tables which was fortunate because
exactly 32 wheeler dealers appeared - filling the tables exactly
for the third straight time! What are the chances? This heat
featured the true Return of the Machines: no less than five players
scored their second win in the tournament: Eric Wrobel (who came
in saying he wanted to play a light game where he didn't need
to think.), Chuck Foster (who in a machine-like way found an
Open Port and the next two systems would buy his goods in quick
succession), Steve Dickson, Roy Pettis and Richard Irving (who
played in a special game using his Green Tater variant who found
a Red & Blue (yes, Blue) Drive for an easy win). Tom Browne,
Patrick Shea and Gary Dickson also won the their first game -
still good enough to advance.

With the rise of the Machines, only 20 players qualified for
the semi-finals. A couple of players jokingly asked to be assigned
to the "easy table"--unfortunately no such table existed.
These games produced two "Water in Gas Tank" Award
"winners". Bill Crenshaw needed to roll a total of
5 on three dice on his penultimate turn and got a 1-1-1. The
turn's delay allowed Richard Irving to claim victory. Also Luke
Koleszar loaded up with every Servo Mech in existence and merely
needed to deliver them to advance, but his Freighter's normally
slow engines almost completely stalled with a 1-1 roll, which
allowed Patrick Shea to win. Eric Wrobel nipped Eyal Mozes as
both were over the $3,000 victory condition, Steve Dickson starved
Philip Shea of goods to win his ticket. Finally, Tom Stokes won
comfortably to move on to the 5-player Final.

Tom Stokes got off to an early lead in the Final. By mid game
there was a crowd showing up at the Interstellar Bioshpere. Tom,
Richard and Eric had to worry about everyone else buying "their"
goods first. This caused Eric to try another trade route where
he found the Jump Start on the penultimate "?" marker.
As usual, the Jump Start powers many a Merchant of Venus victory,
as it did this one. Eric Wrobel was machine-like (and coincidentally
playing the Eeep Eeeps) in victory for his second WBC Merchant
of Venus title.

But all players played well and upheld the #1 rule of this
tournament, Have Fun!